SK Telecom Launches joyn.T Rich Communications

SK Telecom officially launched "joyn.T" -- an all-IP-based RCS (Rich Communication Suite) service under GSMA's 'joyn' brand.  The service  allows customers to use many different types of communication services, including Rich Call, Rich Messaging and Rich Phonebook, in an integrated manner regardless of network and device.

The SKTel service is supported via an app available for 22 different types of Android OS 2.3 (Gingerbread) smartphone.  A joyn.T application for the Apple iOS is expected shortly.

SKTel said joyn.T will also add features based on the RCS standards, such as HD Voice (VoLTE), The carrier said  it will integrate all its future communications services into joyn.T.  It also looks forward to support joyn roaming with other carriers across the globe.

Wi Eui- Seok, Senior Vice President and Head of Product Planning Office of SK Telecom said, "SK Telecom is delighted to be presenting joyn.T, an integrated communication service designed to satisfy customers' needs and interests, thereby enriching their communication experience. Building on its innovative features like instant messaging-SMS link, we plan to add more features to shape Joyn.T into an attractive communication channel that can be enjoyed by customers irrespective of their carrier or device."

http://www.tworld.co.kr/outsite.jsp

• In December, SK Telecom reported a daily average of 60,000 new LTE enrollments, representing over 50 percent growth compared to the previous month.  LTE subscribers surpassed 7 million as of December 12, 2012, thereby achieving the end of year target for LTE subscribers.  The company's LTE footprint covers 99 percent of South Korea's population.  For comparison, it took SK Telecom two years and four months to acquire 7 million 3G WCDMA subscribers since commercializing the service in May 2006.
  
• In August 2012, SK Telecom launched its HD VoLTE service.

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T-Systems Aims for EUR 1 Billion in Cloud Revenue by 2015

Telekom’s subsidiary T-Systems aims to achieve annual revenue of roughly one billion euros, or one seventh of its total revenue, with its cloud business in 2015.  T-Systems had cloud revenue of about 400 million euros in 2012.

T-Systems cited a number of hosting and cloud service contracts signed in recent months, including deals with Shell, BP and the Presbyterian health care system in the United States, the Swiss group Georg Fische, Spain's SEAT, and British American Tobacco (BAT).

"The trend toward cloud solutions can be seen even today from major orders placed by corporations," said Telekom Board member and T-Systems CEO Reinhard Clemens.

http://www.telekom.com

• In December 2012, T-Systems announced plans to simplify its organizational structure from four business areas to two: Sales and Delivery.  T-Systems said it is taking this approach to improve agility in helping its enterprise customers adapt for the cloud.
• In October 2012, T-Systems began construction of Germany's largest data center -- a massive facility that will be built on a surface area the size of approximately 30 soccer fields (i.e., 150,000m2) in Biere, Saxony-Anhalt. The new facility, which will be the 90th data center operated by T-Systems , will be a twin of another data center already running in Magdeburg. The new construction in Biere will form a "TwinCore" -- in the event of any disruption, the twin facility can immediately take over.

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Birch Acquires Covista Assets

Birch Communications, which provides managed communications and information technology services to SMBs in 38 states across the U.S., agreed to acquire select customer and network assets from Covista Communications.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Covista, which is currently traded under the symbol CVST.PK, is a facilities-based telecommunications service provider that serves business, wholesale and residential customers in 48 states.

"Covista's base of high-quality customers are primarily located in several southeastern, southwestern and northeastern states, and fit extremely well into the current Birch footprint.  In addition, Covista's Metaswitch-based facilities network, which has switching centers in Tennessee, New York City and Los Angeles, is complementary to our current service footprint while also adding some new markets," said Vincent M. Oddo, Birch President and CEO.  "This acquisition will strengthen the breadth and scope of the Birch IP-Network and will further enhance our hosted PBX, SIP trunking and wholesale service offerings."

Birch has acquired 17 companies since 2006.

http://www.birch.com/about/01022013.aspx

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Lightower and Sidera to Merge

Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based investment firm, announced plans to acquire both  Lightower Fiber Networks and Sidera Networks and merge the companies into a single telecom operator.  The two transactions are valued at over $2 billion. The companies named Rob Shanahan, Lightower’s current President and CEO, to be the CEO of the new company.

Lightower own and operates over 6,600 fiber route miles extending from New England, to eastern New York State, New Jersey, Long Island and New York City. The fiber footprint provides access to over 3,500 service locations. Investors in Lightower Fiber Networks include M/C Partners, Pamlico Capital and Ridgemont Equity Partners.

Sidera's fiber footprint spans more than 13,500 route miles and includes metro networks in Boston, Chicago, London, Long Island, New York City, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Washington D.C.  It has over 3,000 on-net locations.  Investors in Sidera Networks ABRY Partners and Spectrum Equity Investors.

"Lightower and Sidera together will offer customers an industry-leading, fiber-based network with a deeply experienced team supporting it,” stated Rob Shanahan, CEO of Lightower. “Both companies have a shared vision of network excellence, customized solutions and superior customer support. Once merged, we will offer customers more services, more routes and more access options with the same high levels of performance, diversity, reliability and support that our customers have come to expect from us.”

“This combination is highly complementary,” commented Mike Sicoli, CEO of Sidera. “The broad reach and scale of our combined network, the cumulative expertise of our dedicated employees and our shared passion for customer service and satisfaction will set the new company apart and deliver tangible benefits to our customers.”

http://www.sidera.net

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CTIA Plans "Super Mobile" Consolidated Show in 2014

CTIA-The Wireless Association announced plans to consolidate its two mobile trade shows in the United States into a single "super" event in 2014.  The first CTIA super mobile show, CTIA 2014, will take place Sept. 9, 10 & 11 at the Sands Expo Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

CTIA will continue to host CTIA 2013 and MobileCON 2013 separately while incorporating super show programs as a springboard to the changes in 2014. 

"The wireless industry is evolving rapidly and there is a need to have a show that centers on the entire global mobile ecosystem in a way that hasn't existed among the current shows, which is why CTIA 2014 will be unique. The mobile revolution is positively affecting nearly every industry, such as M2M, connected home, media and advertising, money and global consumer electronics, and CTIA 2014 will serve as a worthy platform to showcase those companies and individuals that are leading this charge and will be a valuable resource for anyone wanting to be a part of this innovative industry," said Rob Mesirow, CTIA Vice President and Show Director. "In addition, the timing of the 2014 show will deliver the perfect stage for companies to debut mobile consumer products and services for the annual holiday buying season."

www.ctiashows.com

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CTIA Elects Officers for 2013

CTIA-The Wireless Association announced today its 2013 officers, who were elected by its 38-member board of directors, and who will serve a one-year term: Mary Dillon, President and CEO of U.S. Cellular, Chairperson; Dan Mead, President and CEO of Verizon Wireless, Vice Chairman; Angel Ruiz, President and CEO of Ericsson, Inc., Secretary; Bret Comolli, Chairman of Asurion, Treasurer; and Pat Riordan, President and CEO of Cellcom, Chairman Emeritus.

In addition, CTIA welcomes five new members to the 2013 Executive Committee: Ron Smith, President of Bluegrass Cellular, Inc. (Small Carrier); F.J. Pollak, President and CEO of Tracfone Wireless, Inc (Midsized Carrier); Dan Inbar, Senior Vice President & General Manager, OEM of SanDisk Corporation (Other Supplier); John Sims, President of Sybase 365 (Other Supplier); Jeff Gordon, President and CEO of Syniverse Technologies (Other Supplier).

"The wireless industry plays an important role in America's economic vitality and makes our personal and work lives better by improving how we interact from wireless technology in other sectors, such as healthcare, education, transportation and more. That's why the 'light regulatory touch' that has been in place for the industry since President Clinton's tenure is vital. By having these individuals provide their in-depth expertise and leadership to our executive committee, I am confident we will continue to be successful advocates for more critically-needed spectrum and for the 'light regulatory touch' so the U.S. remains the world's leader in wireless technology, services and products," said Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA.

http://www.ctia.org

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Jury Awards $1.169 Billion to Carnegie Mellon in Patent Case

A jury in Pittsburgh awarded $1.169 billion to Carnegie Mellon University in a patent infringement case against Marvell Semiconductor.

Carnegie Mellon University said case deals with fundamental technology for increasing the accuracy with which hard disk drive circuits read data from high speed magnetic disks.  Patents covered by the lawsuit were awarded to Jose Moura, a professor in the University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Aleksandar Kavcic, a former Ph.D. student of Moura who is now a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Hawaii.

For its part, Marvell asserts that the two CMU patents claiming a specific technique related to read channel detector technology is not practiced by any Marvell chips.  Furthermore, Marvell argues that "the theoretical methods described in these patents cannot practically be built in silicon even using the most advanced techniques available today, let alone with the technology available a decade ago."

http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2012/december/dec26_marvellverdict.html
http://www.marvell.com/company/news/pressDetail.do?releaseID=3296

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Ericsson to Supply RBS 6000 Base Stations to Etisalat Egypt

Ericsson will supply Etisalat Egypt with its latest RBS 6000 radio base stations to upgrade the operator's mobile infrastructure. Ericsson has been a long term supplier to Etisalat Egypt. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Acacia Announces Patent Deals with NSN

Acacia Research Corporation announced the acquisition of certain 2G, 3G and 4G related patents from Nokia Siemens Networks.  The patents related to Wireless Infrastructure and User Equipment Technology.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Acacia also announced a separate licensing deal with NSN, along with separate settlement agreement with Siemens Industry covering a video analytics patent.


“Acacia is rapidly becoming the leader in technology licensing and we continue to grow
our base of future revenues by adding new patent portfolios,” commented Paul Ryan, Acacia
CEO.

http://www.acaciaresearchgroup.com

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LG to Launch Google TV Models at CES

LG Electronics (LG) is preparing to launch seven new models in its Google TV lineup at the 2013 International CES in Las Vegas.

With Google TV, LG is aiming to redefine the user experience with a interface matched to its redesigned Magic Qwerty Remote, which combines a complete keyboard with the convenient benefits of the Magic Remote's point-and-click control. An updated Home Dashboard also adds to the user experience by offering convenient, streamlined access to premium video on-demand, such as HBO GO, content from YouTube and more apps.

"LG is committed to providing diverse home entertainment options that offer the most satisfying user experience and the latest LG Smart TVs with Google TV do just that," said Havis Kwon, President and CEO of the LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. "They deliver a stellar user experience by merging the latest Google TV platform with LG's proven Smart TV technology. The result is a comprehensive system that is groundbreaking in its simplicity."

The GA6400 series will be available in 42-, 47-, 50-, 55- and 60-inch class screen sizes.

http://www.lg.com

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Devicescape - What is curation?

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Blueprint 2013: OSS/BSS Adapts for Complex Services

Customers are tough to get and easy to lose. The good news is that communications service providers (CSPs)have more and more options for attracting and retaining customers. Here are nine strategies that will play out in 2013.

1. Policy will evolve from a isolated defensive capability to business integral offensive measure. CSPs – particularly mobile operators – currently use policy to a large extent to protect their network. Increasingly they’ll use policy to differentiate their offerings and services based also on customer personal preferences, purchase and usage history. This will require integrated solution between PCRF and OCS, that enables a common product offer creation environment that can be used for both voice and all data product definitions (WCDMA, WiFi, Fixed Broadband).  

2. CSPs will transform over-the-top (OTT) services from a problem into an opportunity. Consumers want ubiquitous communications services. The only way that CSPs can meet that demand is by accepting that for part of the time, they’ll have to serve their customers over someone else’s network. CSPs also have to accept that other CSPs and OTT providers will use their network to serve their customers. Why? Because no one owns the customer. If a CSP won’t meet their needs, they’ll turn to one that can. 

Instead of viewing OTT services as a problem, CSPs will increasingly look at them as a business opportunity. For example, a mobile operator could provide a certain amount of bandwidth and prioritization to a video OTT provider that agrees to share revenue because the QoS would help differentiate its service.

3. CSPs will optimize their OSS/BSS infrastructure to accommodate increasingly complex services. Billing and service assurance will become more important for delivering an optimal mobile customer experience. As more services are introduced, and as the underlying network technologies become more complex, CSPs will focus on their OSS/BSS infrastructure as the centerpiece for ensuring a great customer experience. 

4. Tailored pricing and packaging will become a market differentiator. One size doesn’t fit all. Not every mobile customer, for example, needs or can afford 5 GB per month or 20 Mbps. Tailored packaging of e.g. social media services at a low weekly cost will be one way lower the entry barrier and grow in new segments. With any technology, differentiated pricing appeals to a wider range of needs and budgets, enabling CSPs to cater to all demographics while ensuring profitability. 

5. Smartphone growth won’t plateau anytime soon. Sure, smartphone penetration is already above 50 percent in markets such as the United States. But globally, it’s only 15 percent. That’s a lot of room to grow, and the grow will happen in customer segments that has different needs and wallets compared to the first wave of smartphone customer. Doing so requires differentiated packaging and pricing and other innovative rate plans and service bundles, which in turn require highly flexible BSS/OSS platforms. 

6. Mobile broadband subscriptions will continue to grow. There are 2012 approx. 1.5 billion mobile subscriptions in the world. A big figure, and still only representing less than 25 percent of all mobile subscriptions. It is expected to grow to 6.5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions globally by 2018, representing an uptake of over 70% of all mobile subscriptions. So how can operators succeed to win in this new battle for market share and avoid sever price erosion of broadband data pricing. One key requirement will be highly flexible BSS/OSS platforms in order to create innovative and differentiated offerings that appeal to new segments and at the same time avoid price erosion in among existing customers.  

7. Customer experience will matter more than ever. A reputation for poor service is expensive to overcome. It’s a fact today and it is getting increasingly important tomorrow, as the number of customers that operators are fighting about is not increasing. The increase is in data usage, number of devices and subscriptions. So in order to grow business existing customers need to be maintained especially as the cost for acquiring new customers is very high. Upsell of new services and subscriptions is difficult to customers that are not happy, and on the other hand customers that are happy are likely to buy more, talk well about you, and by that also help creating growth. So make sure that you can deliver on your promise.  For example, if they want to offer business customers a premium experience at a premium price, you first must have the tools in place to assess ensure that experience every step in both the purchase process, activation as well as during actual service usage. 

8. CSPs will analyze customer behavior so they can capitalize on it. Simply providing a voice-and-data pipe out to a customer and collecting a fee is no longer a viable business model. Savvy CSPs realize this. They are deploying OSS/BSS solutions that enable them to analyze how all their customer (prepaid, postpaid and hybrid) are using their services and then create tailored promotions and tariffs that leverage each customer’s or customer group’s habits and preferences. 

9. CSPs will turn customer disgust about being blindsided into a business opportunity and market differentiator. The global backlash against bill shock is just one example. CSPs suffer financially, too, when surprised customers become former customers or share their anguish with their social networks. CSPs also have the cost of fielding all those billing inquiries. Those are among the reasons why mobile operators, MSOs and other CSPs will increasingly provide customers with real-time control of minutes, messages and megabytes used. This information is particularly important for customers with shared, multi-device plans, such as a family or small business.

Providing this type of granular information in a timely manner requires an OSS/BSS solution capable of tracking, controlling and aggregating it. This investment also enables CSPs to create specialized offers, such as providing customers who are approaching their monthly allotment with the option of buying another block of minutes or messages at a special rate. This proactive outreach benefits the CSP’s reputation because now customers perceive it as being sensitive to their budget rather than trying to nickel and dime them.

About the Author

Niclas Melin, Director of OSS and BSS Marketing, joined Ericsson in 1995. He specializes in understanding how real-time capabilities in OSS/BSS can improve the customer experience and create value, and has developed a deep understanding of operators’ challenges and opportunities through operator workshops, discussions with industry analysts and his former role as chairman of the Ericsson Charging User Group.

About Ericsson

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers. 

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Infonetics: Service Provider CAPEX Increases in 2013

Globally, mobile service revenue is the main growth engine in the overall telecom/datacom market, up 4.3% year-over-year in the first half of 2012,according to Infonetics' newly released December 2012 Fundamental Telecom and Datacom Market Drivers report, which analyzes global and regional market trends and conditions.

Some key trends:

• User mobility, specifically BYOD anywhere, is putting pressure on carriers to move to a single network for fixed and mobile access, internet traffic, and private/premium services.
  
• Data traffic growth is outstripping transport equipment costs: traffic is climbing 29% annually while equipment costs are falling 10%.
  
• Software-defined networks (SDNs) are here to stay, but not today: SDNs are on service providers’ minds, but it is a longer-term challenge to find implementations of hybrid SDN and non-SDN in live networks.
  
• The phase out of stimulus monies and pressure on government budgets is decreasing public sector spending and taking a bite out of overall enterprise growth.
  
• With security top of mind due to unprecedented threats and the growing BYOD trend, businesses everywhere are looking to integrate security into everything from smartphones to routers and switches, and are evaluating data center security appliances, cloud security services, and security for virtualized environments and public and private clouds.

“As we’re ending 2012, Europe’s crisis remains uncontained and is now spreading to Germany. The potential of shaking business confidence everywhere in the world has risen to new heights, and the IMF lowered its growth forecast and is warning of recession risks due to downward revision of global GDP, which now stands at 3.3%. Economic readings are worrisome everywhere but the U.S., but so far the impact on global telecom and enterprise remains tame, and we’re forecasting capex to grow nearly 4% in 2012 over 2011,” notes Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.

Téral adds: "With the announcement of AT&T’s and Deutsche Telekom’s multi-billion dollar investment plans, next year’s capex outlay looks brighter."

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UK Attracts 7 Bidders for Upcoming 4G Spectrum Auction

The following company have registered as bidders in the UK's forthcoming 4G mobile spectrum auction, which will start in January 2013:

• Everything Everywhere Limited (UK)
• HKT (UK) Company Limited (a subsidiary of PCCW Limited)
• Hutchison 3G UK Limited
• MLL Telecom Ltd
• Niche Spectrum Ventures Limited (a subsidiary of BT Group plc)
• Telefónica UK Limited
• Vodafone Limited

Bidders will be competing for spectrum in two separate bands – 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz.

Ofcom said this new spectrum will boost the amount of airwaves available to mobile phones by more than 75%.

"The 4G auction will be a competitive process that will dictate the shape of the UK mobile phone market for the next decade and beyond," stated Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive.

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2012/12/4g-auction-bidders-announced/

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O2 Picks Nokia Siemens Networks for London Upgrade

O2 (Telefónica UK) has selected Nokia Siemens Networks for its upcoming LTE rollout across London and the South East of England. The UK operator is anticipating a rapid launch of 4G following Ofcom’s spectrum auctions scheduled for early 2013.

Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks is providing its Single RAN platform, and implementing its high-capacity Liquid Radio solution based on its Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station. The contract includes Nokia Siemens Networks’ NetAct network management system. It also includes network implementation and care services across 50 percent of O2’s radio access network including the South-East of the UK and London.

“We’re investing in our network now to ensure we’re able to make 4G available to our customers as soon as possible following next year’s spectrum auctions,” said Andrew Conway, Head of Mobile Access for O2. “Our choice of vendor was based on the positive experiences we’ve had implementing Nokia Siemens Networks’ Liquid Radio solution in our network.”

http://www.nsn.com

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Pluribus Raises $23M for Hardware Accelerated Network Virtualization

Pluribus Networks, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, raised $23 million in series C funding for its hardware-accelerated network virtualization platform for private and public cloud data centers.

Pluribus provides a platform for fabric-based computing that enables applications to move into the network, and to serve both physical and virtual network infrastructure. The solution includes highly-optimized Server-Switch hardware along with a a programmable, distributed network operating system (Netvisor).  The goal is zero-touch provisioning of virtual machines and network services. Pluribus also provides an ability to store full data flows and sessions in each of its F64 Server-Switches. The company has said that across a fabric of F64 Server-Switches, tens of Gigabytes per second of real-time analytics can be captured and processed.

The new funding round was led by Menlo Ventures with the participation of existing investors New Enterprise Associates, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and others.

http://www.pluribusnetworks.com

• Pluribus Networks was founded in 2010.
  
• The founders of Pluribus include Sunay Tripathi, previously a Senior Distinguished Engineer for Sun Microsystems and was the Chief Architect for Kernel/Network Virtualization in Core Solaris OS; Robert Drost, previously a Sr. Distinguished Engineer and Director of Advanced Hardware at Sun Microsystems; and C.K. Ken Yang, a Tenured Professor of EE at UCLA with a focus on high-performance communication.
  
• In September, Pluribus announced a partnership with TIBCO Software Inc. to deliver TIBCO Enterprise Message Service Appliance and TIBCO FTL Message Switch.

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René Obermann to Step Down as CEO of DT in One Year

René Obermann will step down as CEO of Deutsche Telekom at the end of 2013 and has asked the company's Board of Directors not to renew his contract after that point. He will leave Deutsche Telekom after 16 years, of which he spent seven at the head of the company and 11 years as a member of the Board of Management.

Deutsche Telekom's current chief financial officer, Timotheus Höttges, has been named to succeed him as Obermann as of January 1, 2014.

“In the last few years we have found solutions for our key issues. Deutsche Telekom has the best network, the best customer service in the industry and is expanding its customer base with innovative products. As an employer, we have given the topic of cultural diversity new momentum, which has been recognized and even emulated beyond the company. Furthermore, we have driven a shift in the values at the company: Today, DT is defined by a culture of fairness and open cooperation. And the company also has a solid financial foundation. In short: this is the right time to prepare to pass the baton and ensure a smooth transition," stated René Obermann.

http://www.telekom.com/media/company/168944

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Ericsson Decides Against Taking Full Ownership of ST-Ericsson

Ericsson has decided not to take over full ownership of ST-Ericsson and  will take a non-cash charge of approximately SEK 8 b. in Q4, 2012 related to its 50% stake in the company.

Earlier this month, STMicroelectronics unveiled a new corporate strategy under which it will exit the ST-Ericsson partnership and the wireless broadband market, choosing instead to focus on sensors and embedded processing.

Ericsson continues to explore various strategic options for the future of ST-Ericsson assets. The company said it continues to believe that the modem technology, which it originally contributed to the JV, has a strategic value for the wireless industry.

http://www.ericsson.com

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Shenick Names New CEO and Opens in Silicon Valley

Shenick Network Systems named Gerard Moore as its new Chairman and CEO. Previously, Moore was founder and CEO of Spectel, which he grew from 10 to 240 employees, before it was acquired by Avaya in 2004. Moore is also Managing Partner of Sanvest Ventures. In 2008, Moore became an investor in Shenick and joined its board of directors.

The company has also expanded its executive team to include Ultan Kelly, CTO; Frank Bawle, VP of Engineering and Ameet Dhillon, VP of Marketing and Business Development.

Shenick also announced the opening of an office in Silicon Valley (Milpitas, California).

Shenick's TeraVM is a fully virtualized network test and measurement solution that emulates application traffic flows up to a Terabit/s using industry standard hardware.

"The demand for virtualized test systems is growing alongside the rapidly developing Cloud market. Shenick's new Tera, a fully virtualized test solution, is perfectly poised to take advantage of this market," stated Gerard Moore, CEO, Shenick Network Systems.

http://www.shenick.com

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Blueprint 2013: Backhaul Gets Smarter, Small Cells Get Rolling

2013 should be an eventful year in the network and communications industry. Given the intense focus on 4G and LTE, it helps to have a sense of what’s next in wired and wireless networks.

Five Top Predictions for Networking

Data and video surges cause a shift from a single class of service to multiple classes of service in the backhaul network:  In 2013, we’ll see a shift from a single class of service to multiple classes of service to address the demands of the end-users and maximize profitability for backhaul operators by avoiding costly over-builds. Currently all traffic on a network goes through a single pipe whether it be video or audio. With multiple classes of service, mobile operators will better be able to handle the unprecedented growth of data and achieve significant savings by only delivering services users pay for. Multiple classes of service also enable service providers to allocate network resources for services that matter, rather than providing a “dumb pipe” for all traffic and at all times. Customers, as well as content providers, are willing to pay for those differentiated services.


Carriers finally trial small cell deployments:  There is a lot of buzz around small cells and how they will be instrumental in LTE network rollouts. 2013 will be the main trial year for carriers in outdoor small cell deployment, with carriers increasing RFQs for small cell equipment and their backhaul networks. As outdoor small cells will primarily be deployed on lamp posts and traffic signs in      addition to the outside of buildings, they will require connectivity besides fiber. 80% of small cell backhaul will be over microwave or millimeter-wave links. Additionally, more than half of the growth in small cells will come from the APAC region.

Carrier LTE deployments will double to create 200+ commercial LTE networks:  As more and more consumers buy devices with LTE capabilities, the demand for LTE services is increasing and carriers will need to invest in their radio access networks. Today’s LTE networks are focused on providing basic coverage for LTE devices, but can’t support a large number of LTE devices on the network. In 2013, there will be a growing emphasis on moving towards increasing both coverage and      capacity of LTE networks with the corresponding infrastructure investments. TD-LTE will also see more acceptance and trials, as it reduces carrier costs and requires fewer spectrum licenses.

Carriers figure out a way to provide value added services to businesses over cloud:  Most business services in the past were primarily about delivering a pipe for transferring data between enterprise locations. But with enterprise (IT) services increasingly moving to the cloud, the demand for Ethernet business service is surging. 2013 will be the year when carriers figure out how to make money off of their networks by securely connecting customers to public and private clouds, and helping enterprise customers manage networks and infrastructure, increased use of mobile devices and a more mobile workforce in general. This will allow carriers to provide additional revenue generating services to their business customers, manage service level agreements, and be able to charge for different levels of service, and services that can change based on time-of-day.

Carriers and OEMs implement IEEE1588v2-based timing on a large scale:  Radio networks require very precise timing in order to work. Until now, carriers have been focused on how to move their backhaul traffic to packet-based networks. In 2013, these packet networks will enter the next stage, where carriers are moving to their timing packet-based as well and the IEEE 1588v2 Precision Time Protocol will be the de-facto standard. Overall we’ll see a shift from awareness to actual implementation and deployment. There will be a concerted effort in the industry to define a standard mechanism for accurate time-of-day and phase delivery for LTE and LTE-Advanced networks based on IEEE 1588v2 technology.

Mobile devices are here to stay and only getting more prevalent. According to the Worldwide Mobile Industry Handbook, there will be 8.5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide by 2016, and Cisco's Visual Networking Index predicts mobile data traffic to increase 26-fold over a five-year span. Wireless networks, especially for mobile access, as well as Enterprise networks, must naturally evolve to keep up. 

Give that, these predictions are what Vitesse sees as top network infrastructure trends for 2013. How accurate are they? Who knows. We won’t know until this time next year when we gaze into the crystal ball again. In the meantime, what do you think?

About the Authors

Martin Nuss joined Vitesse in November 2007 and is the vice president of technology and strategy and the chief technology officer at Vitesse Semiconductor. With more than 20 years of technical and management experience, Mr. Nuss is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and a member of IEEE. Mr. Nuss holds a doctorate in applied physics from the Technical University in Munich, Germany. He can be reached at nuss@vitesse.com.


 Uday Mudoi is the director of product marketing at Vitesse Semiconductor. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, a master’s degree in computer science from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, and an MBA from Columbia University, New York, N.Y. He can be reached at uday@vitesse.com.

About Vitesse

Vitesse (Nasdaq: VTSS) designs a diverse portfolio of high-performance semiconductor solutions for Carrier and Enterprise networks worldwide. Vitesse products enable the fastest-growing network infrastructure markets including Mobile Access/IP Edge, Cloud Computing and SMB/SME Enterprise Networking. Visit www.vitesse.com or follow us on Twitter @VitesseSemi.

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